Jacopo Peri (Zazzerino) (20 August 1561 – 12 August 1633) was an
Italian composer and singer of the transitional period between the
Renaissance and
Baroque styles, and is often called the inventor of
opera. He wrote the first work to be called an opera today,
Dafne (around 1597), and also the first opera to have survived to the present day,
Euridice (1600).